We use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right: the Goldilocks effect.

#guilty

Once again, the Oatmeal wins the internet and life.

Great blog post.  

Tim basically sums up what I say when people cross the wires and link Facebook/Twitter updates, “Every time you do this, a unicorn dies.”

If you’re trying to do something professional with social media, the first thing you must realize is that your interactions involve humans, not cold technology. You should consider your audience is humans with interests in very human activities. Considering the audience means acknowledging different platforms have different audiences and often call for different messages. Sometimes there are posts that cross over, but you wouldn’t take a flyer and smash it up on a website and not also include real content (I hope!), the same way you wouldn’t take a letter to students and mash it into a Facebook post (I hope). But one of the worst examples of social media laziness — a worker deciding their own sweet time is more important than their readers — remains automatically pumping the same messages via Facebook and Twitter.